Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many and what proportion of cattle that failed the tuberculosis skin test were subsequently found to have tuberculosis lesions at post mortem in the latest period for which data is available.

Cattle that test positive for TB must be isolated from the herd and are rapidly removed. In 2021, a total of 27,855 cattle were slaughtered for TB disease control purposes in England. The vast majority (94%) of these cattle had a positive result to a TB test, the remaining 6% were considered direct contacts or had 2 inconclusive results and compulsory slaughtered. Visible lesions were found, through post-mortem examination, in 4,869 (18.7%) of the 26,105 TB test positive animals identified in 2021. The absence of visible lesions of TB at post-mortem examination of test positive cattle does not indicate absence of infection.